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Topic: Avery Bradley (Read 3787 times)

Bradley should not be judged as a PG because he isn't one. He struggled in his first season because Doc tried to play him as the backup PG and that simply isn't his strength. He excels playing off the ball and is great at cutting to the basket and is a VERY underrated perimeter shooter.

He is only 22 years old and improving every year. He is already an elite on-ball defender (you could make the argument that he is the best on-ball defender in the league).

Bradley is a crappy PG but if he plays his natural position at the 2, he COULD become an elite SG in the next 3-5 years.

Avery Bradley has shown flashes of being a very good basketball player. Playing hurt late last season has really hampered his development this season as it cost him the off-season and a good chunk of this season to develop his handle and learn the point guard position.

I think he is best suited to be a combo guard and used strategically to disrupt the opposition. I would like to see the Celtics of the future with a very strong three guard rotation of Rondo, AB, scoring 2 maybe Lee but maybe a more gifted offensive player. AB not a point yet but he works very hard and I think he will develop there in the future. I expect a big improvement in his handle over the next two years.

It's my opinion that guys who come into the league with natural talent, eventually develop their offensive game. LeBron as a rookie was as raw as could possibly be, and couldn't make a jump shot to save his life, but he could dribble and he could get to the rim and finish. Bradley cannot do either of those things. Isn't that something that a guy either has, or doesn't have? How can Bradley all of a sudden teach himself how to dribble a basketball or teach himself how to layup the ball if he hasn't done so by now? I think his upside is very limited.

The biggest differences in AB's offense this year is that he's not getting wide open looks around the rim, and isn't stroking the threeball as well. He went from finishing at a respectable 64% at the rim last year to a dreadful 45% this season.

As an initiator of offense, he's very bad - as in not NBA rotation-worthy bad. he can't get his own shot, and he can't create for others. He's a NBA version of a dining room sideboard - he isn't the meal, and can't set the table. If you need someone to dribble the ball over half court and pass it to someone else and stand in the corner, AB is your man.

I think he will come around, but watching him masquerade as a PG the rest of the season is going to be painful. I'm just hoping his failure as a PG isn't going to affect his defense. He got eviscerated by Ty Lawson on Monday and allowed ancient Steve Nash (6 for 7) to conduct a pre-game shootaround in the actual game last night.

It's funny, last night I noticed something strange about Bradley. He breaks in a left/right/up/down pattern, kind of like the controlpad on the old nintendo controllers, compared to the all around movement that a "analog" stick can do.

I know most fans are casual who live in the ESPN world of scoring 30 points in a vacuum, is the only way to be good but Bradley just went through double shoulder surgery and clearly isn't 100%. His defense has been no where near where it was last season before he dislocated his first shoulder, so it's not just last season was a fluke offensively.

Bradley still hasn't had a single NBA offseason to train. Last year he showed he can hit a pull up midrange jumper, the corner 3 and finish at the rim over an extended period of time. Those things didn't just suddenly disappear.

Combine the DOUBLE surgeries, his lack of offseason and his shooting funk, it's been rough for him, but people acting like he doesn't have crazy upside because he isn't scoring 20 a night now are idiots. It's just like Green who has done a good job guarding Kobe, Durant, and Lebron.

In the second half of the year I would like to see more agression for Bradley on the offensive end. Last year he started scoring more in the second half of the year, hopefully it is the same this year.

Wow. I'm really surprised at most of the opinions on this thread. I love AB as a player. I think he is good enough that he will be an all star someday.We all know about his defense, I won't even go into it except to say that he is very, very good defensively. Offensively, he can get his own shot. He is one of the few young guys that is comfortable shooting off the dribble. His jump shot is much better than it appears right now, imo. He is not going to be a great 3 point shooter, but his mid range game has the chance to be very good in time. Right now he does not finish well, but that is CERTAIN to improve in time. He is a poor passer, but he moves very well without the ball. I can see him scoring 15-18 ppg, efficiently, in time. Upside might even be higher.

The thing with AB is that he is most certainly NOT a point guard. He is a 2, albeit an undersized one. I don't think a backcourt of AB and Rondo works in the longterm as a result. As Tommy says, if you are going to be that small, you have to play up tempo basketball- which right now we don't have the personnel to do except in spurts. Besides, I'm not convinced AB will ever be a great fastbreak player, it's just not his game. Bottom line is that I don't think he really fits with this team as it is currently constituted, but I still love him as a player.

I kept calling him an undersized poor mans tony Allen without the mental lapses... and got buried for it by the "savior" fanboys

You got buried because they are completely different aside from their effort on defense.

Bradley is a superior ball handlerBradley is a superior shooterBradley is youngerBradley has more upside

Both are great defensive guards and that's about where the similarities end. That's like saying prime Wade and Bradley are pretty much the same player. Just complete nonsense.

Bradley has one of the worst handles in the league IMO. He is about as good with the dribble as Eddie House was. I also disagree about him having any upside. If he does have upside, it certainly isn't on the offensive end.

The whole "savior of the team" thing was nonsense (although I'm sure my avatar will do little to convince others that I wasn't one of them). That aside, he clearly helps our team and is a solid NBA player despite his deficiencies. He's a high-energy, gritty, defense first type of player that every NBA coach wants on their squad.

He's only 22 and hasn't even had a full training camp yet. You could see when he came back this year that he had no rhythm on his jump shot, and he still doesn't. I doubt he'll ever be good at running a team, but give him some healthy offseasons and training camps I am very confident that he will develop into a deadly perimeter shooter.

This is not a thread to bash him, but i'm just giving some observations. He seems clumsy. He can't dribble (often loses the ball off of his own foot), and he can't make layups. He's one of the few guys in this league who misses fast break layups against lone defenders. I like the difference that he's made on defense, and i like the occasional pull up jumper that he makes sometimes, but he has very little potential IMO. He just doesn't have any offensive skill to speak of. Guys who cannot dribble in this league will not last long as full time starters. Do you guys consider Avery Bradley to be a talented player? I'm just not seeing it with him. He strikes me as a defending, hustle player, nothing more.

To be fair, a lot of guys on this team miss layups (Lee, Pierce, Bradley), and Bass has missed several dunks.

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